They say start out with a bang and so I will.

I have no plan on writing a sequel.

Now that you officially hate me I will explain why to the rest of you who haven't gone into a blind rage. I've thought about many scenarios in which the second book could be about, but I don't like any of them and honestly, I never meant for this book to have a sequel. It has always been a stand alone in my mind.

Besides everything I came up with was SUPER depressing, like Link being found out and becoming depressed, Steve dying, Maggie losing the sandwhich shop and Carter being too emotionally fragile to deal with Donavon pulling away (to help Link out) that she breaks up with him. So you know really cheery stuff.

So there will be no sequel and I am sorry to have broken your heart.

(To patch the broken heart I left you a very small deleted scene at the end of this)

Now on to the random things I thought I would share with you about this book! (They are in a completely random and illogical order)

: I actually wanted this book to be lighthearted. No lie, I didn't think it would end up as sad as it did. Apparently I suck at writing fluffy stuff. Who knew! I guess that all shifted when Steve got shot, Carter's mom came back, Steve signed back on for two more years and...you know...Link is an illegitimate children and Carter has abandonment issues.

Okay, wow I really should have seen this sooner, but still I had hopes it could be a fun book. Clearly I was delusional.

Onward!

: Did you know that Donovan was actually going to be named Alex??

He was going to be named after Alexander Hamilton. Why? Because most of my main characters have names that pertain to political figures. I'll explain.

Names are huge to me. They hold a lot of weight. This was extremely clear in this story. Did you notice all the different connections in my name choices?

Carter is named after a President and her father is a secret service agent.

Link is short for Lincoln (another president).

Like I said Donovan was going to be named Alex but having two gender neutral names was going to be complicated. Carter was going to call him by his last name, Donovan, anyways so I just changed it to that. Besides Donovan is a much stronger name.

Mason is so named for a really long reason that I won't bore you with. (If you already know why then 😉)

Steve isn't named after a political figure but after Steve McGarrat from Hawaii Five-0 because that's who I based him off of.

Link's mom, Monica, is named after the women who had an affair with Bill Clinton.

Donovan's brothers are all named after Presidents, James (Jimmy Carter) Clint (Bill Clinton) and Brock (Barack Obama)!

So there you have it! My hidden secrets in people's names. Maggie and Maddy are so named because they are soft, sweet sounding names. Yes, I'm aware that they are similar. I will probably change this later on.

I'm thinking Amy instead of Maddy. Thoughts or suggestions?

(Yes, I'm also aware I flipped the spelling halfway through and did Maddie instead of Maddy 🤦🏽‍♀️)

: Carter's apartment is based on the apartment I stayed in when my sister and I went to D.C.

Was that boring? Yes, but hey I thought I would share it anyways.

: This book idea actually came from reading Ally Carter's (No that was not intentional I just like the name Carter) Gallgher Girls books series. I wanted to write a book where the main character went to school with the President's son but didn't fall for him. It snow balled from there.

: The attackers were actually going to be after Carter and not Link when I started this. It was going to be since she was the daughter to the head of the Secret Service. They were going to kidnap her and use her to get her father to give up the President. Donavon and Carter would only find this out when they found a picture of her on one of the men.

My sister pointed out that no matter how much he loved Carter, Steve had a duty to the country and his President so I made it Link who they were after instead.

The sister reference for each change is not the normal sister I talk about but and she does the best job ever!

: In the beginning Link was actually going to be born from a surrogate and his parents (senators) wanted him to have a normal life, so they kept him out of the spotlight. Carter of course would figure out who he was.

It was my sister aka The Editor who suggested making him illegitimate. I didn't like the idea at first but then as time went on I liked it more and more.

: Donovan was actually going to be a total bad boy who literally could care less about the pathetic high schoolers around him. He was going to be so hot! Combat boots and a total rebel!

But again my sister pointed out how that would draw too much unwanted attention to him. Making him just silent drew attention away from Link without making it super dramatic.

Part of me still misses that version of Donovan.

: Like I said before I planned for this to be light hearted, so Carter and Donovan's interactions during the fight at the end were going to be all joking and carefree. (I put the small deleted scene at the bottom) Of course the whole situation in which they say the joking things was a lot different and a lot less intense. So sadly that was not said but it still lives on in my head.

: Maggie's deli was actually based on a deli that was right across the street from the apartment my sister and I stayed at.

Were the sandwiches good? You know they weren't great, actually.

: Zendaya's character in Spider-Man: Homecoming is exactly how I see Carter. Honestly, I should have casted her as Carter.

Correction, I did because it's just such a perfect fit.

I found it hard to leave Carter and Donovan and this world behind so I made a book full of one shots about their life. It's called Open Case File.

I posted a book full of chapters from Donovan POV called Classified! It's cause I love you so much that I actually caved and wrote it! Enjoy! ☺️

Well...that's it! I have nothing else to add! My random facts have come to an end! I hope you enjoyed this completely rambling collection of disjointed thoughts!

Leave a vote behind for me! Leave a random fact of your own! Don't follow because really I ramble a lot and we might both get lost, it would be horrible!

Here's the small deleted scene. Once you read it you'll see it was clearly not going to fit into the book, especially not at that intense place.

******************************

Carter followed behind Donovan as they crept along the hallway. They halted at the corner, listening. Carter's heart raced, blood pumping in her ears. The even stomp of footsteps drew closer. Donovan glanced back at her, his look a question. In answer, she nodded.

The man appeared and Donovan raised his gun and fired. The tranquilizer dart sunk into the man's neck. Before he even hit the ground, they were moving forward.

Carter pulled the man's gun out and released the clip, checking the darts. She reloaded it and cocked the gun. When she looked up Donovan was staring at her, an intent look in his eyes. The edge of her mouth curled.

"Yeah, you love me, I know" she said.

He scowled. "I didn't say that."

She smirked. "Sure you didn't."

********************************

Well there you have it! All my secrets about this book!